Bhatinda thermal Plant running at half load due to coal feeding problems
Punjab Newsline Network
Saturday, 13 December 2008
CHANDIGARH: All the four units at Bhatinda thermal plant are running at half the load due to coal feeding problems.

According to sources the four units of thermal plant are running at 60 MW each and produced 69 lakh units against the maximum generation of 112 lakh units.The capacity of first two units is 125 MW each after renovation and other two units are of 110 MW each.

A senior officer informed that the coal feeding problems arises only when the plant does not receive daily sufficient coal rakes.There is no problem in direct feeding when the coal rakes arrives.The authorities are facing problems in lifting coal lying in the plant.

Another official said that it would have been better to run two units on full load than running all the four units on half load. But the authorities are running all the units to avoid adverse publicity.The coal stock at Bhatinda thermal plant is 44200 MT which is sufficient for five and half days if all the units are run on full load.The coal stock at Ropar Thermal plant is 37500 MT sufficient for less than two days.The saving grace is that unit no. 5 is under annual maintenance up to end of this month and unit no. 1 is closed for two days due to boiler leakage. Thus only four of six units are running today and coal consumption is reduced due to this.

At Lehra Mohabat the coal stock of 66000 MT is sufficient for less than five days.The three units are running on full load but unit no. 4 is running at half the load and power generated is 169 lakh units.Meanwhile the power shortage in the state in winter continues to haune the consumers. The shortage is to the tune of 110 lakh units daily. The power demand in the state is around 950 lakh units against the power supply of 840 lakh units daily.The power cuts on the industrial units has been increased to 34 hours a week from the previous schedule of 24 hours a week.

According to official sources PSEB is returning about 100 lakh units daily to Himachal Pardesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttranchal under banking system.PSEB got power from these states in summer and returning the same now in winter and it is one of the reason for power cuts.However other sources attribute this to the selling power to other states at the cost of imposing power cuts in Punjab in order to tide over the financial crisis being faced by the board.